Birding Question- Trying to identify a Duck we saw in Bibury, Cotswolds

Mandarin duck? https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/mandarin-duck

If you have a photo of the bird, you can do a Google search. Just tap the photo symbol on the far right of the Google search bar and either upload the file or drag it in.

Here is a link that has pictures of 24 ducks in the UK, both male and female.

https://birdwatchinghq.com/ducks-of-the-united-kingdom/

You can also download the free app called Merlin from the Cornell Ornithology Dept which will walk you thru an ID process using colors of the bird, where you saw it, what it was doing, etc.

If that doesn't work, PM me and I'll give you my email so you can email me a picture. I am not an advanced birder but may be able to ID it for you.

I have the Merlin app but it only thinks it's a mallard. Does not look like a Mallard. Oh I wish it was a Mandarin but it wasn't that either. Not that exotic. I'll keep searching. Thank you for the suggestions.

have a look

https://www.wwt.org.uk/discover-wetlands/wetland-wildlife/meet-the-family/ducks-found-in-uk-wetlands/

Shelley, just wanted to make sure with the Merlin app that you downloaded the bird pack for the UK so it gives you the correct range of bird choices.

Hi Shelley -

Given that you can’t post pics here, could you give us a brief description, size, colour of plumage, bill, other distinguishing features, etc.? Might help us narrow down - with my Collins Pocket Book of Birds! - what it might be.

Unless of course you’ve already cracked it….in which case please put us out of our turmoil!

Ian

Hello everyone. Mystery Solved. It is a Leucistic Mallard! So, I was happy that I got to find something so rare. Or so the google search says. It looked just like one of the pics I found when I googled Leucistic Mallard.

Would have made it much easier had I been able to put a pic on here. It had more white and a yellow bill and then the back was very gray modelled. it was so pretty and I'm always on the look out for birds so I was excited that it said it's rare. There was a male Mallard there too & I took a pic of him.
Thank you all for your interest. :)

Wow. I’m not sure the Collins Pocket Book would have been entirely illuminating! Thanks for letting us know! Keep us updated if you stumble across any other rarities!

Having never heard of a Leucistic Mallard I just googled it. It is not a different species but rather a mallard that does not have melanin in its feathers, resulting in them being white rather than a regular mallard colour.

You're right that it's very rare though - one estimate is that it occurs in 1 in every 165,000 birds.

I can see why it would be hard to identify as a mallard:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescastle/32183806397

We had a leucistic American Robin in a park near our home for several years in a row—- that one was easily identified by its behavior and song. Also easy to spot among the trees.

https://journeynorth.org/tm/robin/AlbinoLeucisticRobins.html

This may not be what you want to hear, but there are also domestic mallards. In fact, most domestic ducks (of any colour) come from mallard stock. So, it may be a mixed breed of domestic and wild, or a straight domestic mallard, as photos of domestic mallards show some with varying shades of white. Also location may help define the reason for the white. If you were deep on the moors at a small pond, then it may be a naturally occuring leucitic mallard. If this was in the city of Bibury, then you may wonder about the amount of domestic fowl in the area, as domestic fowl often have white or partially white birds.

city of Bibury

Bibury is a one horse village, not even a town, of around 600 residents in the Cotswolds, which attracts loads of tourists to its riverside row of very attractive houses called Arlington Row. For a glimpse there is a webpage extolling the place https://www.bibury.com/. I've been there several times, impresses by its ruralness...

I'm often amazed by waterfowl I see in urban areas in London.

At Clapton Pond in north east London, there's a pair of really exotic ducks taken up residence this year. There's herons that stay for a while, presumably to hunt, now and again. I've seen small waterfowl there (moorhens?) and nesting by the Lea Navigation canal. There's also a couple of sizable flocks of geese that come and go on Clapton Common.

I know next to nothing about birds, but I need to take a better look with the intention of id'ing them.

@Nigel. I was pretty sure there would be some error in my labeling of designation. Google map photos looked better than a one horse town...and there were tourists in the images. But then, it is the Cotswolds...tourists anywhere and everywhere.

You could join the Facebook group Bird Identification Of The World. You can upload the photo there and birders shoild be able to tell whether domestic or Leucitic